Pharmacies. Some drug stores take back their customers’ needles, especially in small quantities.

Hospitals. Hospitals may take back sharps from patients using regular outpatient services.

Local Household Hazardous Waste Programs. Call your local household hazardous waste agency and ask if they collect needles
(sharps) at their collection facilities or on household hazardous waste days. You can also look for this information here:

Local Jurisdiction Sharps Collection Programs, revised August 2011. A file showing a sampling of
local jurisdictions’ sharps collection programs and containing
contacts, e-mail addresses, program summaries, and outreach
materials. This spreadsheet could help jurisdictions that don’t
currently have collection programs to set up their own sharps collection program.

Needle Destruction Devices. The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) currently only lists the
“Disintegrator” as
a needle destruction device approved for use by self-injectors.

Sharps Containers. The California Department of Public Health Medical Waste Management Program is recommending the use of
sharps containers approved by the FDA. After accessing the FDA website,
type “sharps” in the search box. The container names will display alphabetically.